Season 3, Episode 6

Sink or Swim

In the final episode, the remaining celebrities from Team Rachael and Team Guy have to prepare a three-course dinner with a five-minute presentation aboard a dinner cruise ship to entertain a panel of judges including Sunny Anderson, Scott Conant, Todd English and Aarón Sánchez. Everything is on the line to win $50,000 for their charity and receive bragging rights as winner of the Celebrity Cook-Off!
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Recipes From This Episode

Touchdown Peach Cobbler

The Bomb Southern Chicken with Red Beans and Rice and Collard Greens

Shrimp and Grits Sweep

Episode Photos

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To the High Seas

Guy, appropriately outfitted in his captain suit, and Rachael welcome the final four celebrities to their finale challenge, which will take place on the Hornblower Infinity, an event cruise ship. Here they will have two hours to cook and serve a three-course meal to seven celebrity chef judges. One celebrity will go home with $50,000 for his or her charity.

Photo By: David Lang ©2013, Television Food Network, G.P.

Captains of Their Own Destiny

Team Rachael's Penn and Florence and Team Guy's Herschel and Tiffany are excited to be taking on their final cooking challenge, but they're anxious that they will also have to do a five-minute presentation in front of the judges. Luckily they'll have help with the cooking, as Judy and Ice return to be their sous chefs.

Photo By: David Lang ©2013, Television Food Network, G.P.

Going with the Flo

The celebrities are cooking two at a time so that they have plenty of room in the ship's kitchen. Florence cooks first for Team Rachael, but her Mama Flo's Italian Sunday Supper theme has her hot and bothered: "I think this is going to be a tremendous amount of work, in what I think is too short a time." Rachael reassures her, saying just "trust your palate" and everything will work out.

Photo By: David Lang ©2013, Television Food Network, G.P.

Perfection Is Overrated

Florence and Judy finish the plates, which include Florence's crab with spicy sherry sauce appetizer, sole piccata entree and cannoli parfait dessert. Florence had trouble cooking the fish because the griddle wasn't level, resulting in some less-than-perfect fillets. "I'll just hope that it'll be so good that the judges won't mind," she says.

Photo By: David Lang ©2013, Television Food Network, G.P.

Donations of All Kinds Are Welcome

As part of her performance, Florence recounts growing up poor and using her singing talent to busk on street corners. She passes the hat, taking donations, including Guy's watch. "I would like to donate this to my favorite charity — myself," she jokes. "No, actually, whatever I have in here, I match it, and I give it to City of Hope."

Photo By: David Lang ©2013, Television Food Network, G.P.

Comfort Food Doesn't Mean Relaxed Cooking

Herschel's Southern comfort menu includes barbecued shrimp with grits for the appetizer, chicken with red beans and rice for the entree, and peach cobbler for dessert. "I want to go back to my roots," he says. "I want to throw that Southern flair on it because those are the things I'm comfortable with." Guy stops by to remind him time is running out.

Photo By: David Lang ©2013, Television Food Network, G.P.

Baking No Bones About It

Herschel puts the finishing touches on his plates, ensuring that everything's neat about his Southern-Style Touchdown, as he calls it. Ice took a little too long cutting up the peaches for the cobbler, so Herschel fell back on the standby canned peaches and used premade pie crust for the crumble topping. "I hope this tastes as good as it looks," he says.

Photo By: David Lang

Paying It Forward

Before the judges taste his food, Herschel recalls his childhood: "My mother made me feel good 'cause she said I was big-boned. All the other kids said, 'No, you're fat.'" That fueled him to get involved in sports. After all his athletic accomplishments, he's now helping others: "I'm fighting for Patriot Support ... helping all the military servicemen ... suffering from any kind of illness."

Photo By: David Lang ©2013, Television Food Network, G.P.

Mediterranean Mentorship

Tiffany and Penn are the next pair to cook. Guy steps in to help Tiffany round out her appetizer idea for her Mediterranean menu: "Guy takes my simple idea of doing a salad and brings it to seafood salad. That is exactly where I wanted to go with it." He shows her how to use the strainer to delicately poach the seafood without overcooking it.

Photo By: David Lang

Party Under Pressure

Tiffany's three-course meal features her seafood salad appetizer, arancini balls for the entree and tiramisu for dessert. Fortunately her arancini made the plate at the last minute — the fryer didn't want to work at first but heated up just in time. "Man, I'm not gonna have any more dinner parties anytime soon," she says.

Photo By: David Lang

Serving and Singing a Dish of Love

Tiffany offers up her Italian Lover menu with each course representing a stage of love. "As a singer, I don't really put a lot of pressure on myself, but on this one, it's different," she says. "I'm playing for my charity [The Caring Place]. I need to knock this out of the park." So she belts out the love story "about a guy, but actually in the form of a dish."

Photo By: David Lang

Outsizing the Competition

A little too tall for the galley kitchen, Penn got to prep his food ahead before coming on the ship. "When you're my size," he says, "there's no place in the kitchen on the ship that I can stand up." But once inside he has no choice but to hunch over as he cooks fish for his entree.

Photo By: David Lang

Bringing in the Reserves

Penn's Vegas on the Sea menu includes Caesar salad, halibut casino and jackpot bread pudding. But as Judy and Penn finish plating, Judy realizes something: "We're missing a piece of fish here." It appears a fillet ended up on the floor. Penn is left with a last-second decision to remedy the situation by using "an emergency fish" from the benches, one that didn't turn out so good.

Photo By: David Lang

All in a Day's Work

Penn tells the judges, "I have done probably 10,000 shows with Penn & Teller, but this is the most important because Opportunity Village matters a lot to me." The charity helps people with intellectual disabilities find work, which Pen says allows them to say "they can be defined by their work, just like the rest of us." With that he does what he does best, puts on a show — juggling broken liquor bottles.

Photo By: David Lang

A Two-Fold Final Challenge

The four celebrity finalists gather to find out their fate with their sous chef teammates on the sidelines supporting them. Guy starts it off by congratulating them: "Today was the test of all tests, cooking on a ship, three courses, two hours, serving some of the greatest chefs in the industry." Rachael adds, "And you had to entertain everyone as well."

Photo By: David Lang ©2013, Television Food Network, G.P.

Congratulations to All

Guy hands it off to the judges, who each go over the merits of the finalists' menus. Sue enjoyed the "playfulness" of Florence's meal and commended her for competing with an injury. Aarón was honored to taste Herschel's food and thought it "captured the essence of Southern cuisine." Todd applauded Penn for his show, saying that the restaurant business is also part "entertainment business." And Michael called Tiffany's meal "art on a plate," praising her storytelling through food.

Photo By: David Lang ©2013, Television Food Network, G.P.

Announcing the Season 3 Winner

Scott does the honors of announcing the winner: Herschel Walker, scoring a second win for Team Guy! Herschel jumps for joy: "When I came here, I said, 'I came to win,' so I'm excited. $50,000 … it's gonna help a lot of soldiers that have been suffering, and that's what it's all about. This means a great deal."

Photo By: David Lang ©2013, Television Food Network, G.P.

Toasting the Win

And there's a surprise for Team Rachael, as well, as Rachael calls on the second-place celebrity with some good news for his charity: "Penn, you were our runner-up. Guy and I are going to match $2,500 each for your charity, bringing your total to $10,000."

Photo By: David Lang ©2013, Television Food Network, G.P.

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